Sasikala — which includes Chief Minister E. Palaniswamy — and the other, led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, have pledged him their support. Union Minister for Health J.P. Nadda, BJP general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu P. Muralidhar Rao and Mangaluru MP Nalin Kateel will accompany Mr. Kovind. The party’s lone MLA in Kerala, O. Rajagopal, will also travel to Chennai to meet Mr. Kovind, so will the MLAs of the NR Congress, led by former Puducherry Chief Minister N.R. The Indian National Lok Dal of Haryana pledged support to Mr. Kovind on Thursday, taking the number of parties backing him to 30. The final port of call for Mr. Kovind in the south would be Karnataka.

Source: The Hindu June 29, 2017 17:15 UTC